St. Felix of Nola

St. Felix of Nola was a priest of Nola in Campania, in southern Italy, in the third century, the son, according to tradition, of a Syrian who had settled there. Ordained by the bishop of Nola, he served the Church faithfully, and during the persecution, most likely under the Emperor Decius about 250, he was arrested, imprisoned, and tortured for his faith, though he survived the ordeal and, by tradition, was miraculously delivered from his chains.

After the persecution he was offered the office of bishop but humbly declined it, choosing instead to live in poverty and obscurity, tilling a small plot of ground and giving away what he had to those poorer than himself. He is remembered as a confessor who suffered for Christ yet was not put to death, and his tomb at Nola became a much-visited shrine, its fame later spread by the poems of St. Paulinus of Nola, who was devoted to him. He died about 260, and is venerated as a saint, his memory kept on 14 January.